Storm of Steel (Penguin Classics)

Product Details

Published shortly after the wars end, Storm of Steel was a worldwide bestseller and can now be rediscovered through Michael Hofmanns brilliant new translation.

Product Reviews

(4 stars) - Excellent Memoir of Life on the Western Front in WW I
"Storm of Steel" is a memoir of German World War I veteran Ernst Jünger's experiences from 1915 through 1918 on the Western Front. First entering combat in April 1915 as a private, Mr Jünger fought in many of the best-known actions on the Western Front, advancing in rank to Lieutenant and being wounded 14 times. Mr. Jünger was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st Class, and at 23, was the youngest-ever recipient of the Pour le Mérite, at the time Germany's highest award for valor.

The book describes, in fairly graphic detail, the horrors of combat in World War I, as well as the quieter interludes he experienced while in reserve behind the front lines. From reading the book, it is apparent that Mr. Jünger was fortunate to have lived through the war. Many, if not the majority of his closest comrades, were killed or severely maimed. However, while not glorifying war, per se, he does not come across as anti-war in his writing either.

Although I was very interested in the book and in the detail it provided, it took me a long time to finish the book. I'm not sure if this was because of the way the writer wrote or if the translator's style wasn't working for me, but the book wasn't as engaging as I had hoped. Still, it's a true classic (one of a comparitive handful of memoirs from World War I still in print), and stands as one of the best works in English from the German perspective.

(4 stars) - Interesting Perspective
"Storm of Steel" by Ernst Junger provides the reader with a very different perspective of WWI, at least to a reader from the U.S. The German perspective given by Mr. Junger in this book confirms, to some degree, that the typical German soldier faced many of the same hardships and dangers that Allied soldiers faced. The book is very focused on the author's personal experiences, which luckily for the reader and unluckily for the author(count how many times he is injured), makes the book interesting to read. After reading this book, I came away with a new sense of respect for the German soldier. The book humanizes the German foot soldier. I will keep this frame of reference in mind as I read other books on WWI.

(5 stars) - Great memoir, clunky translation
Based on the original German title, Storm of Steel could also be titled Into the Storm of Steel, which I think would better explain the story it contains. This book records the wartime service of a young German officer, Ernst Jünger, who spent over two years on the Western Front during World War I.

Jünger's novel has been compared to Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front quite a bit. I won't get into the details, but despite the differences in how they view the war, Jünger and Remarque cover much of the same ground. Jünger begins his story in medias res--in the middle of things--as he arrives on the front for the first time. He is wounded in short order, but returns to combat to be wounded again and again. But he doesn't mind--Jünger takes pride in his role as an infantry leader and in the achievements of his men. In a telling passage, he tots up his wounds for a figure of twenty scars total on his body. And he recounts this fact without the slightest shred of self-pity or regret.

Jünger retells his story as a memoir, not a novel, and so he--and perhaps his brother--are the only "characters" who stand out as fully-developed individuals. But that in no way detracts from the power of his work. Jünger has a flair for describing battle, as does Remarque, but where Remarque emphasizes the horror of what he sees, Jünger's books is so thrilling that one can't help but see what he doesn't mind the wounds. They're worth it for the experience of battle.

Several reviewers have commented on the quality of this translation by Michael Hofmann. I speak German but unfortunately don't have access to a German copy, and so can't comment on the accuracy of his translation, but compared with short segments of previous translations, Hofmann leaves quite a bit of Jünger's book out. Hofmann's English is also rather clunky, reading too much like a translation and strewn with awkward constructions and odd choices of slang.

But my quibbles with the translation aside, Storm of Steel is still a worthwhile read for anyone interested in combat in general and World War I in particular.

Highly recommended.

(1 stars) - Awful book or awful translation?
The translator of this edition, Michael Hofmann, goes to great lengths to distance himself from Basil Creighton's 1929 translation, quoting verbatim passages from Creighton's version which Hofmann feels are inaccurate. Since I don't read German, I can't comment on the accuracy of either translation. I can tell you that Hofmann appears to have rendered a verbatim translation laced with run-on sentences, multiple independent clauses, mixed-up word sequences, and obscure British-English words. Here's an example: "In total darkness, if the French flares happened not to be lighting us up, we had to stick to the heels of the man in front with somnambulistic confidence if we weren't to lose ourselves altogether, and spent [sic] hours traipsing around the labyrinthine network of trenches." Suffice to say this is not an artful translation. I found no evidence of "war-glorifying" or "neo-Nazi" ideology in the book. Rather, it was difficult to read and boring. Jünger appears to have reprinted his war diary (boredom punctuated by terror), while Hofmann has given us a verbatim rendering. Placing this book in the same category as Graves, Sassoon, Remarque, et al. is preposterous. This book might be of interest to the researcher or devotee of WWI German infantry, but I found little to recommend it to the general reader of military history.

(4 stars) - Perhaps the best WWI novel
I found this book to be repetitive. The introduction mentions this. However, war is repetitive and monotonous, especially the trench warfare of World War I. In that respect, the book is spot on.
This book reads like a war diary, but that does not make it any less horrific and spectacular. Because it is repetitive I would recommend spending a lot of time with this book. Put it down and take a break if you must. But give it your full attention. It deserves it.

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